I stand with Patrick Brown - Here's why I'll be voting for him...

If you're a political junkie like me, then you're no doubt hooked on what's happening with the Patrick Brown story.  I'm all over this like Doug Ford's little brother on a crack pipe.

Patrick Brown, left for dead....the knives still stuck in his back with nobody in the party with the guts to take a chance and offer him their support.  The all powerful #MeToo movment convincing them to toss their leader into the political graveyard where he was supposed to die.  

But he didn't die, it took him some time to get his strength back of course.  Understandable after he had just seen everything he'd worked at for his entire adult life go up in smoke.  All because of two anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct that he refuted in the strongest possible terms right from the start.  

The first allegation has been shot full of holes.  It was a lurid tale, an older politician trolling the bars, plying a high school girl with drinks.  Having a friend drive her to his house, luring her to his second floor bedroom and then closing the door, dropping his pants and demanding oral sex...."suck my ###" or "put this in your mouth".  Disgusting if true.  Getting a high schooler drunk and having a buddy drive her to your house....what a scum bag.

But then it all started falling apart.  Patrick Brown didn't live in a two storey house when his accuser was in high school, he lived in a one floor open concept apartment flat with no bedroom door to close, and the friend who allegedly drove her to the house says that categorically never happened.  

CTV obviously never investigated to make sure the details of the alleged incident were accurate.  Perhaps there wasn't time to do the required leg work if the objective was to get the story out and still leave time to replace Patrick with a new leader.  Forced to back pedal CTV updated its story, with the accusser now saying she might have gotten the collateral details messed up...but the rest she maintains happened.

Complicating the matter further is that this first accuser was a housemate of a CTV reporter, really bad optics there.  

And even worse, the second accuser is friends with CTV's Rachel Aiello who worked on the story.  This second accuser, a recently released reporter with Ottawa's 'The Hill Times', claims she was lured into Patrick Brown's bedroom.  However conflicting accounts from others present at the time of the allegations claim she was cozying up all night to Mr Brown, all googly eyed and then followed him upstairs after he'd gone into his bedroom.  

While in the bedroom the accuser's story is that Patrick Brown kissed and climbed on top of her.  She says she told him to stop and drive her home, which she says he did.  Patrick Brown's account is that she in fact kissed him and that he then said he was driving her home.  

Oh what a tangled web we weave.  What really happened?  We may never know, but given the conflicting accounts from those who were there, there is more than just a reasonable doubt in my mind.  As Patrick Brown has said, if the individuals behind these claims truly believe their stories, then go to the police and report it.  

Add the fact that the former and possibly future leader of the party subjected himself to a polygraph test in an effort to bolster his claim to innocence.  And he didn't just get someone from the yellow pages to hook him up to a lie detector, it was done by John Galianos, a professional with some 40 years experience in administering these tests.  He was recently employed by CBC's 'The Fifth Estate" for their Barry Sherman investigation.  

Here's a link to the exclusive story:  

http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/exclusive-patrick-brown-passed-lie-detector-test

Patrick Brown should be under no more a cloud of suspicion than the man moderating the debates, TVO media star Steve Paikin.  Both Mr Paikin and Mr Brown are the subject of sexual misconduct allegations, however Mr. Paikin was allowed to remain in his position while his government employer hires a 3rd party to investigate the allegations made against him.

So yes, Patrick Brown has my support.  The PC Party put forward a platform under his leadership called "The People's Guarentee" which was crafted after extensive consultation starting at the grass roots.  Maybe that's what irritates some of the PC elites, perhaps they're used to crafting party policy on their own and then selling it to the membership instead of the other way around.  

Is it perfect?  Of course not, this is politics and when you consult you take everything in, and obviously not everyone is going to like everything.  If you want to know what's in it, surprise surprise....its still up on the Party's own website.  While Doug, Caroline and Christine have been busy trying to take over the store nobody bothered to check what's on the shelf:

https://www.ontariopc.ca/peoplesguarantee

With that plan in front of Ontario voters the PC's were poised to assume control of Queen's Park in June according to polls.  Now there are 4 candidates who are flying by the seat of their pants, saying they'd scrap the platform...willing to risk being labeled as a party without a plan.  

Supporting Patrick Brown's bid to reclaim the leadership is one thing, but the bigger question is do I think he'll win the leadership.  To be perfectly honest, I do not like his chances.  Not with a media empire like Bell Media on the attack.  

CP24, a Bell Media property, had a pit bull reporter hounding Mr. Brown as he announced his bid outside party offices.  The narrative this Bell Media affiliate kept trying to push was that Patrick Brown would be a distraction to the bigger goal of uniting the party and defeating Premier Wynne's Liberals.  

PUH-LEASE!!!!  

You want a distraction?  Is Doug Ford's high school illegal drug dealing reported in the Globe & Mail a distraction?  

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/globe-investigation-the-ford-familys-history-with-drug-dealing/article12153014/

Is Ben Mulroney's employment as a CTV Bell Media star a distraction given the hatchet job CTV News did on Patrick Brown?

Christine Elliot is my second choice.  I'm very suspicious of the Mulroney CTV connection, but I don't see anything of that sort with Ms Elliot, and until Patrick Brown joined the race she was my first choice.  But she would be going into an election as a rookie leader with no platform to put before Ontario voters, and if it wasn't for CTV's shitty reporting she wouldn't even be running right now.  Call it fruit from the poison tree.

Good luck Mr. Brown, I'll be rooting for you.  Its David versus Goliath without a doubt, and this blog won't help much but I hope it does some good.  Realistically though I know Canadian Soapbox is a fart in a hurricane, and CTV News and other Bell Media properties can blow a lot harder than an obscure little blogger.